


dear dictator

by lucigucci



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Devil Lucio (The Arcana), Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, Gen, Masochism, Master/Pet, Predator/Prey, Sadism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:48:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25949866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucigucci/pseuds/lucigucci
Summary: (dear dictator by saint motel)(author's note: the first chapter is SFW, the second chapter is NSFW)“You’ve caught me in an indulgent mood,” he continues, allowing you to kiss up his palm, the tips of his fingers, kitten lick his knuckles. “I’ll spare everyone in this room from my wrath, for now and for forever onward. However–”He tilts your head up to ensnare your gaze in his. For someone so handsome, he’s looking shockingly wicked. “First, you need to beat me in a game.”“A… game?”Lucio withdraws his hand and paces around you. “I’ll give you until the sun goes down to evade me. Run. Hide. You could try to escape the kingdom altogether, but then you would be abandoning your precious friends, and I’m sure you don’t want that. Just keep in mind that if I lay my hands on you before the first stars appear in the sky–” he bends down to whisper in your ear– “I win, and I’ll claim my prize.”
Relationships: Apprentice/Lucio (The Arcana), Lucio (The Arcana)/Reader, Lucio (The Arcana)/You
Comments: 2
Kudos: 118





	1. Chapter 1

“Listen,” you say, looking around the room at the four pairs of accusatory eyes, trying to appease all of them at once, “before anybody gets too angry, it _wasn’t_ my idea.”

“Whether it was your idea or not, the deed is done,” Nadia announces.

You turn to her, replying, “I’m just saying, I told him not to do it. I’m in the same boat as you are.”

“Same boat,” Julian scoffs. “I beg to differ.”

“Yeah, you were the one who promised to bring him back to life,” Portia pipes up, hands on her hips.

“And he’s sure as hell alive again,” Julian finishes.

“Okay. Okay, _technically_ ,” you answer, blushing profusely. “But I never wanted Lucio to become the actual Devil. I was looking for a way to bring him back without having to kill anyone for their body. You know that, right?” You look to Asra, who has been silent. “Asra, back me up here.”

He narrows his eyes at you, but, at last, says, “my apprentice is telling the truth.”

“ _Thank_ you!”

“No matter how foolish they might have acted.”

“ _Thank_ – oh. Okay. No, you’re right.” You scratch the back of your neck, looking down at the floor in shame.

“MC, your intentions were pure, and I respect you for it,” Nadia adds, placing a kind hand on your shoulder. “But now we must formulate a plan of attack. As you seem to have known him best, do you have any suggestions as to how we might fix this little problem before he comes looking for us?”

You wrack your brain, but nothing is coming up. “I knew how to deal with Lucio, not the Devil. I’m sorry, Countess, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“Well, we can’t hide up here forever,” Portia cuts in.

“I know,” you mutter.

Asra comes to your rescue. “I think as long as we keep him away from Vesuvia, we can keep the population safe,” he says. “Though he may be powerful, the Devil reigns only in his own realm. As Lucio is– well, dead– I think I can safely say that control of the country remains in your hands, Nadia.”

“That is good news indeed,” she says.

“So you’re saying we’re safe?” Julian asks, inclining his head toward Asra.

Asra sighs. “I’m saying… we might be able to keep him from causing too much damage. Bargains are what give him power in this world. If nobody has dealt with him, then he should be relatively harmless.”

“That’s good!” you exclaim, trying to lighten the mood. “So the situation isn’t really that bad!”

“Besides the fact that the most annoying guy in the world has gained limitless cosmic powers, no, not that bad,” Julian says.

You turn on him. “I never got a thank you for clearing your name and saving you from execution, by the way,” you snap.

The tips of his ears turn red in embarrassment and anger. “I’ll thank you after we figure this mess out, that you got us in.”

“Are we seriously back to this? I told you, I didn’t want–”

“Shh!” Asra steps in between you and the doctor, eyes as round as moons.

There are footsteps in the hall.

Everyone glances at each other, then to the door, unsure what to do. Julian unsheathes a dagger and Asra steps in front of you. “Let me do the talking,” Nadia whispers, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “I will put him in his place and take the brunt of his anger.”

“No, Milady!” Portia protests.

But before Nadia can reply, the door flies open with a dramatic bang. 

A leering Lucio stands before you, draped in golden jewelry, positively radiating power. Two black horns protrude from his head and long hair cascades around them down to his shoulders. “I was wondering where I would find you,” he says. “What a coincidence. All my favorite people in one place.”

Nadia steps forward, fists clenched and head held high. “You have no power here, Devil,” she declares.

He cocks his head at her. “Oh, Nadi, I think you’ve got it all wrong.” His sneer widens. “It’s you who should be bowing to me.”

On command, everyone is pulled to their knees in one movement by an invisible force, a sickening crack echoing through the chamber.

Except for you.

You glance around wildly at your friends on the ground, wondering if Lucio wasn’t able to extend his powers to you for some reason. Since Asra is closest, you try to help him to his feet, but no matter how hard you tug his hand up, he cannot rise. “Leave him,” Lucio commands.

You release Asra, swallowing a lump in your throat. “What do you want?” you ask. It comes out a lot shakier than you anticipated.

He chuckles. “Oh, dove, no need to sound so scared.” He steps around Nadia to approach you with open arms. “I’m here now. There’s no need to be frightened.”

Lucio tries to wrap his arms around you, but you quickly step back, and his smile falters. “Let them go,” you say.

“Why would I do that?”

He takes one step forward, and, in turn, you step back. “They’re our friends.”

“Friends,” he simpers. “They betrayed both of us.”

“No, that isn’t true!”

One step forward, one step back. You’re running out of room to back up to. “They wanted me dead, MC. They would do the same to you if you let them– go back on their promises and leave you to die.”

“N-no– no, they wouldn’t–”

One step forward, one step–

Your back hits the wall and a shudder runs through your body. Lucio chuckles, placing his hands on the wall to either side of you to trap you. “But you,” he croons, “oh, you, little one– you always believed in me. You saved me. And for that, I’ll thank you for the rest of eternity.”

He raises his hand to cradle your jaw, running a razor-sharp nail over your bottom lip, smiling as you shiver at the touch.

“Get away from them!” Asra yells from behind him. The invisible force pushes him to the floor with a grunt, face muffled.

“Don’t,” you murmur, but just barely loud enough to hear.

“Mm? Did you say something?” He seizes your chin, talons digging into your skin and pricking pain in the tender skin there. “Because if you did, I’d love to hear it, loud and clear.”

You swallow a lump of fear. “P-please don’t hurt them,” you say, louder, but not much louder.

“Ah, there it is.” He leans forward. “All humans want something, don’t they? Always wanting and wanting with no thought to what price they’ll pay for their greediness.”

“Lucio, they helped us,” you protest.

“How naive. They wanted me dead, MC, and they would have let you go to your grave too if not for me.”

You look over his shoulder. You can’t make out anyone’s expressions, since their backs are facing you, but all of them are visibly shaking, either from fear or Lucio’s magic holding them down. “What are you going to do to them?” you ask.

“They will suffer just like I did. I’ll separate them from their bodies and curse their souls to wander Vesuvia until they fade away into the air. But you–” He lessens his grip on you, trailing his fingers down your neck, chest, stomach, to curl his hand around your waist. “You will join me in the magical realm.”

Your heart skips a beat. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t?” He tuts and steps still closer, until there is nothing keeping your warm shivering body from him but fabric. His other hand tangles itself in your hair.

“Lucio, please, I… I’m frightened,” you mutter.

“Don’t be. I won’t hurt you.” He grins, revealing shining jagged fangs. “Unless you ask very nicely.”

Without waiting for an answer, he bows his head to kiss you. It’s so familiar, so comforting, and yet like fire it burns, filling you from head to toe with warmth and pleasure. You moan into his mouth. There’s a voice from far away that you can’t quite make out, but whatever it said, it pulls Lucio from you. “Oh, _Asra_ , I wouldn’t dream of it,” he calls over his shoulder. “They taste so divine, I couldn’t dare to give them away.”

“You bastard!” Asra yells.

Lucio starts to stomp over, but you pull him back by the arm, admonishing, “wait, please, don’t–”

It takes you by surprise when he actually does stop. “Insistent thing, aren’t you?” he remarks.

“Lucio, please don’t hurt them,” you beg, sinking to your knees voluntarily before him. “Please. For me.”

He laughs. It sends a shudder through you– it’s lower than his normal laugh, more gravelly. “Look at you. Bowing, pleading. You’re the only person who could make it look _heavenly_.” The tips of his claws scratch at your scalp, and it takes all your strength not to flinch away. “If my darling dove is so determined, it must be very important to you, yes?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” you reply.

His fingers tighten in your hair and he growls from deep in his chest. “Majesty. I like the sound of that.”

You take his blackened hand and press it to your lips. “You’ve caught me in an indulgent mood,” he continues, allowing you to kiss up his palm, the tips of his fingers, kitten lick his knuckles. “I’ll spare everyone in this room from my wrath, for now and for forever onward. However–”

He tilts your head up to ensnare your gaze in his. For someone so handsome, he’s looking shockingly wicked. “First, you need to beat me in a game.”

“A… game?”

Lucio withdraws his hand and paces around you. “I’ll give you until the sun goes down to evade me. Run. Hide. You could try to escape the kingdom altogether, but then you would be abandoning your precious friends, and I’m sure you don’t want that. Just keep in mind that if I lay my hands on you before the first stars appear in the sky–” he bends down to whisper in your ear– “I win, and I’ll claim my prize.”

You’re frozen with fear, only able to stare straight ahead and tremble like a trapped rabbit. He straightens up with a chuckle. “And, since I’m so nice, I’ll give you a ten minute head start. Trust me, you won’t get a better deal. So what’ll it be?”

You look at the immobilized people around you. All major Arcana, even the Devil, couldn’t lie, so perhaps this was the only way to save your friends. “Yes,” you announce.

“Then what are you doing groveling at my feet? Go on!”

 _Shit!_ You spring to your feet and sprint out of the room, haunted by Lucio’s laughs echoing around the hall.

Where to go? What to do? If you went farther than the palace grounds, would he call that cheating? You barrel down staircase after hall after staircase, which are empty after Lucio’s grand entrance in the ballroom.

And then it hits you. The hedge maze in the garden! Lucio spent most of his time in the palace, so he probably knows it better than anyone, but his distaste for natural environment kept him out of the hedge maze. You may not know your way around in it, but neither will he, and all you need to do is outlast him.

You’re starting to get winded as you run. A thorn of pain lodges in your side. Keep going. They’re counting on you. Keep fucking _running_.

But then a thought crosses your mind, a terrible thought, as you throw open a door and run through the grass. What if it didn’t matter where you went? What if he could sense your magical presence and trail you like a bloodhound?

No, you can’t think of that. You have to keep hope. 

Yet his eyes, his stormy grey eyes mingling with cruel scarlet, stare at you even when you close yours, his hands brushing your arms no matter how fast you run.

The maze comes into view at last. As soon as you enter its walls, you slow your gait to a walk, wheezing and clutching your chest as you stumble. Black spots pop over your vision. Your throat is raw and dry and each step forward is painful.

Has it been ten minutes?

You shuffle into a clearing, a large square room in the hedge with an ornate gazebo in the center, and monstrous bushes of white roses in bloom. The foliage looked relatively thick, and the bushes were definitely big enough to hide you, but the thorns peppering the stems scared you too much for you to seriously consider hiding there.

“Ready or not, here I come!” a voice shouts from far away, and you start. How far away is he? You look up to check the time. The sky is already streaked with pink. Surely, surely, even if he was entering the maze, you could stay away for long enough. 

Mustering every ounce of your courage, you get down on your hands and knees, clap a palm over your mouth, and crawl into the rose bushes.

Pain comes at once. You have to bite down on your fingers to keep from crying out, lowering your body into the grass to inch deeper into the foliage. The smell of roses mingling with dirt mingling with your own blood and sweat is stifling. You only stop when you’re certain that your entire body is hidden. Tears fall thick and fast from the corners of your eyes as you bite down into your own flesh. Julian. Portia. Nadia. Asra. 

What if Lucio did lie after all? Perhaps he didn’t apply to the rule about major Arcana not being able to lie. Were your friends already dead?

Footsteps are approaching. You scrunch your eyes closed and do your best to slow your breathing. There’s a disappointed sigh from overhead. “I didn’t think you’d go that far,” a familiar voice says, and your body tenses even more. “Or did you not realize that rose bushes have thorns?”

You don’t reply. The tiny cuts all over your body combine into one burning agony that consumes you. 

“I can hear you,” he says. “I can’t see you, you’ve done well, but I can hear you. Your heartbeats. Your breaths. You want me to free you, don’t you?”

You shake your head, since he can probably hear that too, and he chuckles. “So you’re enjoying yourself. I didn’t know you were such a masochist, but I’m far from disappointed.” There are more footsteps, approaching closer and closer. “I could heal your wounds, you know. It wouldn’t take very long. Or I could strip you and lick the blood away.”

You clench your muscles, sighing between the fingers around your mouth. “You like that? Then come and get it.”

A hand extends to you from outside your sanctuary, scraping on thorns, spraying tiny droplets of pitch black blood across the grass. The cuts heal themselves back up in a matter of seconds. “Here, jewel,” he says, beckoning for you to take his hand.

You take your fingers from your lips to start to stretch up, but quickly take it back as soon as you remember his words– _if I lay my hands on you before the first stars appear in the sky, I win._

“You magicians are all the same. Stubborn to the end. I guess you want me to come to you.”

All of a sudden, the ground shifts beneath you, and a set of roots slaps you in the face as it is thrust upward. Orange light fills your vision and you scrunch your eyes closed. Part of the pain has lessened, the pain on the upper half of your body.

There’s a shifting sound in front of you, the sound of something sitting down a few feet away from you. “Found you,” he mocks.

Your eyes flutter open. He’s lounging in front of you, legs spread, evening sun reflecting in his eyes and glinting on his horns. “I could force you into my arms, but that isn’t as fun. So come here.”

You bite your lip. Would he stop you if you tried to run? You push yourself up onto your knees, and, at once, you realize you couldn’t run a few feet before falling over out of pain and exhaustion. He watches your antics with an amused sneer. “You could sit there until time runs out, but I doubt you can last that long. You’ve dug your own grave.” Lucio opens his arms to you. “Because it hurts, doesn’t it? And you know that I can take the hurt away.”

He looks angelic, lit up by the light, and just like back in the magical realms, you long to hold him, even though you know that you shouldn’t. “If I do,” you whisper, voice rasping from the dryness in your throat, “y-you’ll kill them.”

“Kill them? No, what gave you that idea?”

You narrow your eyes, continuing, “you said that if I lost– y-you’d turn them into ghosts.”

“I said nothing about their fates when you lose. It’s your life on the line at the moment.”

“Y-you’re going to kill me?”

“I’m going to take you with me,” he explains patiently, “to my realm, and keep you as my pet for the rest of your life.”

 _That isn’t much better._

He brings his hand close to your face, and, instead of pulling you forward, he twirls his fingers in the air around your skin, the mere ghost of an affectionate touch. A whine squeaks out from the depths of your chest and he licks his lips. “You want me to own you, mark you, claim you,” he purrs.

You inch forward, hoping to feel his fingers on your skin, but he pulls away just far enough. “L-lucio…”

“Does it hurt, MC? Tell me it hurts.”

“It hurts… not having you hurts…”

“Then come and take me.”

You crawl forward carefully out of what remains of the foliage, navigating between his legs, until your nose in a breath’s length from his. “Y-you won’t hurt them, w-will you?” you stammer.

He seizes you and slams you into his lips, sucking away any breath you might have had left. There’s a very odd and painful sensation– like flames licking your skin– but before you can question it, it’s gone as soon as it arrives. Lucio pushes you down into the grass, releasing your lips to declare, “I win.”


	2. Chapter 2

_Win. I win._

The words echo in your ears as he stares down at you like a cat who just caught a particularly elusive canary. “Look at you,” he continues, and you’re too dumbfounded to fight him when he starts to ease your shirt off your torso. “I’ve never seen anyone so desperate for a fuck. It almost makes me want to watch you to try to get yourself off to your pain.” He peels your shirt away, lowering his claws to your bare torso and raking them up and down, adding to the pain of the rose wounds and making you sob. The cool grass under your back is your only relief as you squirm. 

“Lucio!” you cry, digging your nails into the grass below.

“What? Does it hurt?” His leer widens, but he takes pity on you, removing his nails from your skin and wrapping two gentle hands around your ribs.

You bite your lip and nod.

“You hurt me too, you know. Caring about those fools so much that you’d make yourself bleed for them. As if they deserve your blood.” Lucio bows his head to examine one of your wounds, sliced just above your heart, so close that you can feel his breath tickling your skin. His smile has faded. Both eyes are heavy, lips parted, as though the blood blossoming on your skin is a fine wine ready to be tasted. “And this body comes with… _such_ a hunger.”

Before you realize what’s happening, he seals his lips over the cut to suck it dry. You moan and arch your back up to him, caught between agony and ecstasy, yearning to be flooded with both at once. His hands trail around to your back to keep you up in the air. Your head falls back, limp and twitching. When your eyelashes flutter closed, you lose track of time completely, unsure if you stayed that way for a minute more or an hour more.

Lucio laps at the wound a few times before remarking, “never thought I’d enjoy the taste of blood so much. Maybe it’s because it’s yours.”

You watch him twirling his tongue across your skin and he hums his appreciation at your twitches of pain. “L-lucio,” you murmur.

“Mm?”

“Your M-majesty.”

He stops at once, locking his eyes with yours, thin lips curling into a grin. “I wish they could see you,” he says, “just like this. They’d be so jealous.”

“What d-did you mean earlier? About what you’re going to d-do to me?”

“What I’m going to do to you,” he echoes. He reaches down to your pants, claws working to undo them. “My pretty pet. Are you scared?”

You nod, and he chuckles, tracing a finger around your hole, more gentle than you thought him capable of. “You shouldn’t be. Nobody else will be able to touch you, hurt you. And I’ll spoil you with everything you could ever want.” You whine, trying to push yourself closer, but he holds you back with a cruel laugh and a hand on your stomach.

“I want you to fuck me,” you whimper.

But he just sneers and continues to draw circles in your tender skin, just shy of where you want him. “You need to learn who’s in charge from now on, little one. So you don’t want to take it slow? You want it fast, huh?” He withdraws his finger so he can free his cock from his pants and line the head up, pressing so very gingerly at your entrance.

“Yes, your Majesty!”

Without a single warning, he thrusts into you, and you cry out at the sudden heat consuming your core. He’s too big to take all at once and you feel tears burning in your eyes. “Isn’t this what you wanted?” he mocks, pushing deeper still, having to dig his claws into your skin to hold you still.

“Ghh–”

“Come on, answer me!” He eases out just enough so that he can slam into you again. 

You scream out your agony. “Y-yes!”

“Yes what, you worthless slut?”

“Yes! I want you, I want youmoremore _more_! _Lucio_!” The rest of your words come out as useless jumbles of sounds as suffocating pleasure entwines itself with the pain. Tears flow freely from your eyes as he keeps up his relentless pace, refueling the fire in your core. You hardly feel your orgasm, your spend being sprayed from the force of his cock, your throat-wrenching keens. He doesn’t take long to come after and this is when he finally slows to a stop inside of you. Numbly you feel warmth spreading inside of you.

“What does pet say after I treated them so nicely?” he croons.

“T-thank you,” you wheeze.

“Tell me how pet likes my cock inside of them.”

“I– I do, it– it’s so big, and hard, and– and–” You clench around him, gritting your teeth and releasing a pent-up hiss of contentment.

“You want to keep going, don’t you?”

“Ahh, yes!”

He withdraws himself from you, slow so his spend doesn’t leak out, ignoring your wail. “Then show me how much you want me,” he says. “I want you to put on a show for your so-called friends. I want you to get on your knees again and look them in the eyes while I fuck you from behind. Got it?”

You blush at the thought of it. “I c-can’t.”

“You can’t?” Lucio seizes a fistful of your hair, tugging a yelp out of you. “Then let me help you, you inept whore.”

Your nails scrabble at the back of his hand and he swats you away with a growled, “be good or I’ll break you.”

“I– I will be!” you gasp. “Your Majesty! Your Highness!”

He lets you go only to gather you up in his arms. “Then you’d better make them cry,” he mutters.

“I will, I will, I’ll be good!”

Lucio smirks and snaps his fingers. All of a sudden, you blink, and you’re in a completely different environment, one that’s very familiar, and filled with familiar faces. Your heart skips a beat. “Ladies, gentlemen, and magicians,” he crows, dropping you onto the carpet with a flourish, “come closer– the show is about to start!”


End file.
